1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to improvements in a carrier for vertically supporting a slat also called "louver" of a vertical blind.
1. Description of the prior art
More specifically, the invention has to do with a carrier for vertical blind, which includes a body slidably mounted onto a supporting rail and generally having a central section provided with a rotary slat suspender; a drive section, on one side of the central section, carrying an actuating mechanism for use in rotating the slat suspender upon actuation of an endless cord usually positioned at one end of the rail; and a connection section on the other side of the central section for operatively joining the carrier to an adjacent carrier so that all carriers may be moved to one side of the window opening to uncover it or be spread out over the full breadth, the slats being then equally spaced from one another. In the latter position, the slats may be pivoted an angle of 180.degree. about their longitudinal axis by the actuating mechanism. All pieces of a carrier are molded in plastic material.
In known blind installations of this type, the slat suspender is an one-piece element having a gear-like toothed end lodged in a chamber of the central section and a suspension end to which the slat is mounted; the toothed end meshing with a rotary worm of the drive section. The slat suspender is held fairly solidly in the central chamber and it requires a relatively strong pull on the slat to remove it from the chamber. Now, young, children are often tempted to pull on the slats precisely to disconnect them from the carrier. As the selected slat resists, the child applies a stronger pull. When the carrier finally gives out, the slat very abruptly becomes free and the child may often be seriously injured by suddenly loosing his balance and falling on the floor or hitting himself on a piece of furniture.
Under some circumstances, the rail with all the carriers and slats may also fall down and seriously injure the child. Moreover, in all cases the whole carrier is to be replaced, which may be sometimes very expansive.
With existing installations also, it sometimes happens that some of the slats fall out of line and do not lie in the same general plane as the others, when the blind is closed, nor are they parallel with them when opened and no provision is made to correct the situation readily so that complicated adjustment has to be made by acting on each of the faulty carrier.
It is also noted that, in prior art blinds of this general type, the pull-bar that connects one carrier to an adjacent one is a separate member and this involves a further difficult operation in assembling the blind, if it is particularly considered that the carriers are quite tiny pieces.